Staying Cautious

I’ve only made one trade for August options expiration and that was a covered call.  I just can’t find the stocks I want to sell naked puts on.  I have one limit order in to sell naked puts on NVDA again.  It’s been more than 30 days since I took my losses on it and now that the wash rule doesn’t affect me, I’m thinking about getting back in.  I sold at 20 and 22.50 and it’s trading close to 20 right now.  I made the right move by letting my shares get called away so I could take the losses for tax purposes and now am eyeing the August 17.50 naked puts.

I read an interesting article on MarketWatch today that painted a gloomy picture of where the markets are heading based on the charts.  I think he’s on to something which explains my lack of trading.  I’d rather miss a short rally than get spanked too bad on a hard pull back or longer bear market with too much invested and not enough cash ready to put into play at cheaper prices.  If I miss an upward swing, so be it. 

I added another $15,000 to my money market (NPLXX) instead of letting it sit in pure cash.  This brings my total money market to $90,000.  I’m only long VIP, so I needed the cash to be working for me in the money market, even if only at 2.05%.  Maybe we’ll get a rate increase from the Fed and I’ll earn more on this cash.